Most of the 16 Republican candidates for U.S. House District 1 sought to distinguish themselves from the horde of conservative hopefuls at a Hilton Head Island forum Friday, with some pressing former Gov. Mark Sanford on past term limit pledges and his claim that the three he already spent in the seat help ensure greater influence from day one.

The candidates delivered five minutes of prepared remarks before a crowd of about 170 at the Hilton Head Country Club before lining up to answer questions from an audience still making up its mind about whom to support in a March 19 primary that experts anticipate will lead to an April 2 runoff in the GOP-leaning coastal district stretching from Charleston to Beaufort County.

While the candidates stuck to well-practiced stump speeches with their five minutes — with many deriding “career politicians” in a field that includes a number of lawmakers — voters drew unscripted exchanges with the question and answer session afterward.

One questioned the assembled candidates whether they’d agree to a three-term limit, with state Sen. Larry Grooms and former George W. Bush staffer Jonathan Hoffman leaving their hands unraised while state Rep. Chip Limehouse said he would if it were enshrined in law.

But former state Sen. John Kuhn, who’s kept a steady attack on Sanford over a 2003 bond bill and his previous support of term limits, said the question should go to the former governor.

Sanford said he met that pledge by leaving Congress in 2001 but that “life has a lot of turns and twists” and the issue isn’t black and white.

“I’ve never run for office from another office, and there are a whole host of advantages to running for office when you’re paid by the taxpayer to do so. And I would also say this: Thomas Jefferson...was engaged in public policy for 34 years of his life,” Sanford said, stressing that he wasn’t equating himself to Jefferson.

Sanford again came under fire when he argued that his three terms in the 1st District from 1995 to 2001 ensure greater seniority and influence in a House with a young Republican caucus and a number of personal contacts from his time in politics.

Hoffman, who spent six years in the capital mostly in an immigration policy role, said awarding seniority and the same committee assignments is an open question that’s ultimately up to House Speaker John Boehner.

“All I’m putting out there is it’s not a guarantee, and I don’t think it’ll be as beneficial as he says,” Hoffman said after the forum.

When discussion turned to gun control, most candidates pressed for reforms to the mental health system, with state Rep. Andy Patrick arguing discussions over a renewed assault weapons ban or high-capacity magazines is “the wrong solution to the wrong problem.”

But Grooms bristled at any new federal legislation, suggesting a push to collect more mental health data could lead to more “lock ups” at the hand of the government, and Sanford questioned the effectiveness of stiffer background checks.

Hoffman argued the two go hand in hand, and though the public might not be concerned with Sanford passing off weapons to grandchildren without a background check, that wouldn’t be the case with the mother of Newtown, Conn., shooter Adam Lanza.

“Let’s be honest,” he said. “It’s a complex issue, and mental health is definitely the key to it, but we can’t just do mental health.”

While current or former lawmakers held the microphone often, the forum wasn’t without its anti-establishment candidates, from Iraq veteran Shawn Pinkston and engineer Ric Bryant to former Dorchester County Sheriff Ray Nash and Teddy Turner, son of media mogul Ted Turner.

Turner, a former broadcaster and businessman who now teaches economics at a private high school in Charleston, has aimed his attacks at the lawmakers in the race, labeling them “career politicians” in ads.

“They were out raising money (last November), they were out telling you what they were going to do for you,” he said. “And then they sat in those seats for less than 40 days and they decided to run for the next office.”